Artificial intelligence-enabled smart monitoring of vancomycin concentration using a droplet-driven triboelectric nanogenerator

Vancomycin is indispensable in modern medicine for treating serious Gram-positive infections, especially those that are resistant to other antibiotics. Meanwhile, monitoring of vancomycin concentration is necessary for assessing patients’ condition. It is urgent to develop a biosensor with rapid response and reliability. In this study, we introduce a droplet-driven triboelectric nanogenerator (DD-TENG) as a self-powered sensor for detecting vancomycin concentration. Texture and fluorination strategies were adopted to optimize the performance of DD-TENG. The triboelectric signals decreased with the increase of vancomycin concentration in droplets and reversed when the concentration exceeded a certain concentration, due to the change of triboelectrification between droplets and triboelectric material. Moreover, a deep learning model was applied to recognize different vancomycin concentrations and achieve high accuracies. In the application, DD-TENG was integrated into medical droppers to monitor vancomycin concentration. Furthermore, DD-TENG also shows great potential in detection of vancomycin concentration in human serum. This research introduces a compelling approach for intelligent detection within medical systems.